I went to work at a construction site, because they provided bread cards for 800 grams of bread per day. Mirrah and her mother had cards of dependants for 200 grams of bread per day. We were living in a plank barrack filling chinks in the floor with moth. Life was very hard there. People were dying of cold and starvation. We didn’t have any warm clothes. I received a winter jacket at the construction site and this was the only warm piece that we had. Mirrah and her mother learned to knit.
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Displaying 50251 - 50280 of 50826 results
Mina Smolianskaya Biography
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He employed me as a shipment forwarder on trains to Karaganda. It was a big city with the population of about 1 million people in over 3000 km from Kiev. I was so worried all this time that I was working there. My shipments were valuable and I was afraid of thefts on the way. Once there were barrels with alcohol in the shipment. At a station some people made holes at the bottom of railcars looking for this alcohol. It was a good thing they didn’t find it. They would have filled their bucket and the rest of it would have been lost on the way. I was responsible for safety of shipments and I might have been punished for any losses.
He was born in the village of Radauty in Bukovina. It belonged to Rumania before 1940. In 1940 when the Soviet power was established in Bukovina he went to work at a mine in Karaganda.
Romania
When we got acquainted Aron spoke poor Russian. People in Radauty spoke Rumanian before 1940 and his family spoke Yiddish at home. We also spoke Yiddish with him at the beginning and then gradually his Russian improved.
There were not many Jewish women there and he began to date me. Soon we got married. We had a civil ceremony.
My husband lived in a hostel and I moved in with him. There were no comforts whatsoever in this hostel. There was one toilet and one gas stove for 50 families and we washed ourselves in a bowl in our room.
We were homesick and decided to move to Chernovtsy, where my husband’s older brother lived.
When we arrived at Chernovtsy my husband told me to wait for him at the railway station while he went to look for his brothers. Their neighbor told him that they had left for Rumania on the last train. They has sent invitation for us to join them there, but we didn’t receive it. We didn’t even have a place to stay overnight. My husband found an abandoned attic with no windows. There were bare walls and bugs there. It was cold and empty. My husband and I picked some wood and made a fire to warm it up a little. We had some savings that we spent to accommodate this attic for a living.
When we arrived at Chernovtsy my husband told me to wait for him at the railway station while he went to look for his brothers. Their neighbor told him that they had left for Rumania on the last train. They has sent invitation for us to join them there, but we didn’t receive it. We didn’t even have a place to stay overnight. My husband found an abandoned attic with no windows. There were bare walls and bugs there. It was cold and empty. My husband and I picked some wood and made a fire to warm it up a little. We had some savings that we spent to accommodate this attic for a living.
My husband’s brother found us wishing that we moved to Rumania. It was necessary to refuse from the Soviet citizenship and I was reluctant to do this. Some neighbors told me that if I refused from the Soviet citizenship I might be put to prison. One could never be sure what might happen and my husband and I decided to stay in Chernovtsy.
In 1995 my husband died. I buried him beside my son. I didn’t follow any Jewish rituals. I don’t know these rituals, I don’t know the details of traditions and procedures to follow. I don’t know any prayers, all I know is how to cook traditional food.
After Ukraine gained independence in 1991 the Jewish life changed. There are Jewish organizations and there are signs in town in Yiddish and Ukrainian. Jews feel protected. We receive food packages and money for medications. Old people receive small pensions and their savings vanished in Soviet banks. My husband and I worked so hard to save some money for our old age days, but I can’t get any of it now.
As for anti-Semitism, it won’t vanish. I have a neighbor downstairs that told me that I had to go to Israel where I belong. I said to him “No, I live here and I belong here”. Then another distant neighbor came to borrow some money from me. I said to her “Look, I am not a banker!” and she said “a zhyd must have money!” And I gave her some money. What else could I do. What if she gets angry and comes to break my windows or do other harm?
Volunteers from Hesed bring me newspapers and tapes with Jewish music. I got a tape-recorder from Hesed to listen to tapes.
I have good neighbors that bring me milk, meat and cottage cheese. I can manage with my pension. I also have tenants. I charge little from them, but that’s sufficient for me.
Later my cousin Adela, my uncle Shyka’s daughter, offered me to move in with her. She had two rooms. I met my first husband there. He was an electrician and came once to change fuse. His name was Wolf Ratiner. He was called Volodia that was a more customary Russian name. We got acquainted and began to see each other.
Volodia’s father was a warden at the synagogue in Odessa.
His parents were religious, they observed all traditions and celebrated holidays, but Volodia and I were atheists.
Volodia’s family was against our marriage. When he told his family that he intended to marry me his father invited his children to a dinner and made an announcement that their brother wished to marry a country wench. He asked me whether I intended to work after wedding or I shall be a housewife. I told him that I intended to work. He told me that I was not of their kind: they were well educated and had good manners while I didn’t and I didn’t read as many books as they had and was a plain girl and that he wanted his son to marry an educated town girl. When the dinner was over I told Volodia that we had to stop seeing each other. But he replied that since his mother died his father never made him a dinner and his new wife never washed a shirt of his. He said he was going to live his own life and wanted me to become his wife.
Before we got married his father invited us for the first Seder at Pesach. He was a very religious man. When we came Volodia’s father was sitting on pillows at the table. He said prayers and told me to open the door. I didn’t know any Jewish traditions and I didn’t go to open the door. Volodia’s father explained to me that I was his younger daughter-in-law and that I had had to open the door and wait until he told me when to close it. He told me that the door should be opened for Elijah (6) to come in a sip some wine. Volodia’s father began to ask me questions and I got all confused. I replied that I was a Komsomol member and was against religion. I left the house. Volodia ran after me and told me that I should obey his father and brothers. We left together.
On the following day we went to the registry office. We got married in 1934. I was 20 and my husband was 19 years old. My husband’s father invited us to dinner after the civil ceremony at the registry office. We didn’t have any money left after Volodia paid the fee of 3 rubles for the ceremony. After we left the registry office I went to a nearby store to get some food for the small change that we had. There were radishes that we could afford. We came home and I made a salad with radishes and oil. We had a meal and then went to my husband’s father. When we came his father had a dinner he wanted to treat us to, but my husband said “We are not hungry. My wife made a meal at home”.
I was very happy to be living in the room of my own: to have a bed and a cupboard and be the mistress of my own home. I couldn’t cook at all and I was learning from other tenants since we had a room in a communal apartment. My primus stove was on a windowsill in the hallway, as there was not enough space for it in the common kitchen.
We worked hard, but we also had leisure time that we spent going dancing, celebrating Soviet holidays, getting together with friends. We had friends of different nationalities, but this was a matter of no significance for us. However difficult was our life we were happy. We had a hope for a better life, sang Soviet songs and went to the cinema.
In 1940 my brother was recruited to the army. He liked it there and he sent us a photograph from the army. Joseph served in Brest Byelorussia and perished during defense of the Brest fortress on the first day of the war 22 June 1941.
On 1 May 1941 I became a member of the Communist Party. It had been my dream for a long time. I wanted to be in the first rows of builders of communism. It was quite a ceremony at the district committee of the Communist Party. The secretary of the district committee greeted me and shook my hand. However, it took them longer to issue my Party membership card and I didn’t obtain it before the war.
Efim’s younger son Vladimir studies at Business College in Chernovtsy.
My son visits me when I ask him to do some shopping for me. But he doesn’t ever listen to what I tell him. I tell him that I would like us to move to Israel and he should have a Jewish wife, that he should go to synagogue – well, things like this… He agrees with his wife in everything. I say to him “Son, you are on your wife’s side, but who will be on my side?” He doesn’t reply. It hurts, but what can one do?
My husband was eager to move to Israel. All his relatives live there. His brothers and sisters moved to Israel in late 1940s. As for me, I couldn’t bear to leave my son and this wife of his here. I told my husband that I would go if my son, Efim would move to Israel. And we stayed.
How I wished to visit Israel, but we couldn‘t afford it. Now I am too old.
My heart goes out for this country. So many people die and these explosions…
Mirrah’s husband Haim found us in 1944. He was wounded at the front and after he was released from hospital he was appointed director of Agadyr, a railroad station not far from Semipalatinsk.
Tobiash Starozum
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I would give anything in the world to go to Israel. All I want is going to the graves of my parents. But I never managed to go there for different reasons, work or health condition. However, I have no regrets.
, Ukraine